If I were to ask you, what did Jesus say was the most important commandment, you would probably quote verse 30,..”and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and while loving God and loving your neighbor is absolutely our command, Jesus began by telling us the Lord our God is one. This phrase is unique to Marks gospel in the New Testament.
The profound truth of being able to love is found in the oneness we have with the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It is the very love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that enables us to love ‘even as’. Could we say the very word ‘love’ is the personification of Jesus?
In the beginning, we observe the unique workings of each person of the Godhead but still unanimous in purpose. We find the body of Christ, unique in graces and parts, but one in purpose. Psalm 133 tells us from this place of unity, God commands His blessing of life evermore. The Fathers heart and motivation is love and he achieves His purposes through the union He has with the son, the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ.
We find Jesus praying in John 17 for the oneness he has with the Father to be known and shared by us. Verse 23, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me”. It is in this oneness that the world knows and perceives the love of God.
In John 15, Jesus tells his disciples that we are to remain vitally united to the vine. Apart from this vine we are not able, not capable, of doing anything from a place of oneness with them. Consequently we are unable to offer anything more than our own human efforts.
Our Father reminds us that divorce can only occur within a hard heart and that it is a violent act, covering ones garments with blood. Mark 10:5; Malachi 2:16. His cry is for us as His children is to abide in Him and His word to abide in us. This is to be our standard and our guide for life. We measure our lives, our hearts, by the willingness we have to submit to the Fathers ways and word.
Our New Testament admonition is for His body to be of one accord. Nothing done through strife or selfish ambitions, but in love esteeming one another higher than self.
I read from Brother Lawrence in Practicing His Presence, that Brother Lawerence practiced living as if each individual was Jesus and asked himself the question, would I do this if this was Jesus? Would I say this, if this was Jesus?
We are growing. We are conforming. It does take time. We do have to practice. We will make mistakes but how gracious He is, as we lean into Him, to reveal Himself to us and make His ways known that we might be perfectly one.